The United Kingdom appears to be following in France’s footsteps by vowing to eject foreigners who whip up antisemitism in the wake of the massive terror attack against Israel, its government has said.
Robert Jenrick, a Conservative member of parliament and government minister cited people who “glorified” terrorism and terror group Hamas, even in cases where the law wasn’t being broken, as being potential targets for deportation.
British newspaper The Guardian reports Jenrick said on radio Wednesday morning that the bar wouldn’t be so low as to include waving a Palestinian flag at a demonstration because “we believe in freedom of speech”, nevertheless in his view visitors to the United Kingdom do not have a right to antisemitism.
He is reported to have said: “I think there is conduct which is below the criminal standard but which is wrong, would be accepted as wrong by most reasonable people. If those people are not British citizens, they are just visitors to our country enjoying the privileges of living here, being among fellow British people, then I’m afraid their visas will be revoked and they should leave the country.”
Those who visit the United Kingdom must abide by British values while they stay, the immigration minister said. Jenrick has previously said the process to remove arrivals into the UK who fail this test is already underway but has declined to name any specific cases. The Daily Telegraph suggests the numbers involved are very low, with just six people presently facing having their visas revoked for such behaviour so far.
As ever for the British government, telling an individual they have no right to remain in the country is the easy part, and actually compelling them to leave seems often beyond the wits of the state. The deportation rate of boat migrants is staggeringly small, for instance, coming in at under half of a per cent.
Government employees have even threatened to go on strike to stop deportations taking place.
The purported UK plan follows by a week a similar — if more apparently robust — pledge by the French government of Emmanuel Macron after it banned pro-Palestine rallies and vowed to deport “trouble makers”. Days later, Macron himself said there would be a “ruthless” examination of government files on suspected extremists and that foreign-born Islamists would be removed from France.
